Police: Cousins attacked man with pepper spray, stole his iPad

Pair of cousins in jail for spraying a man with mace and stealing his iPad on the Orange Line. (WGN-TV)

Pair of cousins in jail for spraying a man with mace and stealing his iPad on the Orange Line. (WGN-TV)

Rosemary Regina SobolTribune reporter

Two cousins are accused of discharging pepper spray into the face of a New Jersey man riding the Orange Line and taking his iPad Monday morning on the Southwest Side, authorities said.

Judge James Brown set bail today at $500,000 for Thomas Garner, 18, and $100,000 for Termaine Brown, 20, according to Cook County state's attorney's office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton.

Garner, of the 17300 block of South Kedzie Avenue in Hazel Crest, and Brown, of the 3400 block of West Fallen Oak Lane in Peoria, are both charged with one count each of felony armed robbery, police said.

They are scheduled to appear in court again on April 15, Simonton said.

About 9:30 a.m. Monday, police responded to a call of a battery victim on a CTA Orange Line train at 4900 S. Kedzie Ave. in the Gage Park neighborhood. Two witnesses told police they saw a man dressed in dark clothing and a female in a gray hoodie rob a passenger, according to a police report.

Garner told police he sprayed the victim, a 48-year-old Westfield, N.J., man, in the face with pepper spray while Brown allegedly took his iPad, police said.

Garner and Brown, who are cousins, fled the scene on foot but officers searching the area found two people matching their descriptions running south on Kedzie and arrested them in the 5000 block of South Kedzie Avenue at 9:40 a.m., police said.